A pair of articles in the Denver Post show that Colorado residents are catching onto the fact that “affordable housing” isn’t the universal panacea that is being promised. New housing is not affordable, unless it’s government-backed, while higher densities are killing the very reason that people enjoyed their city in the first place. Pro-development progressives in Boulder won’t solve the housing crisis “Building a lot more housing won’t reduce prices because there’s an unlimited supply of people nationwide who’ll pay whatever it takes to live here. Boulder is a unique blend of access to culture and nature in a small city. There are plenty of people who want to move here and have the means to do so.” This sentiment also applies to Lakewood, revealing the lie to all the promises that more housing will solve problems. Denser housing vs. the ’burbs “While Colorado lawmakers require upzoning and offer incentives in their push for denser housing concentrated at Regional Transportation District bus and train hubs, thousands of metro Denver residents like the Wellners are migrating to suburbs. They give multiple reasons for their moves: affordability, elbow room, quietness, safety and parks — things that transit-oriented development (TOD) often lacks.” Many people moved to Lakewood for exactly this reason – wanting elbow room and safety. But Lakewood aspires to become more like urban Denver, in the name of affordability. Meanwhile, there are plenty of people who will pay “whatever it takes to live here.” Lakewood is planning on changing the zoning...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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Mandy Connell, Host of The Mandy Connell Show on KOA and iHeart Media, challenged her listeners to rat out shenanigans at the local level. Thanks to you, wonderful readers who are also her wonderful listeners, Mandy invited Karen Morgan on for a discussion of crime and housing. We also talked about Lakewood’s new propensity of going over the heads of Lakewood residents to change state law rather than listening to residents. Thank you Mandy for being so much fun, very well researched and getting the word out to everyone! Just a heads up that Mandy may have another Lakewood guest next week so keep listening. Listen to the whole segment from The Mandy Connell Podcast on KOA iHeartRadio.
From savebelmarpark.com Greetings Supporters of Save Belmar Park, The Kairoi Belmar project is moving forward with no active citizen objections. Will this rogue demolition mess be a wake-up call? The top image is 777 S Yarrow Street in Lakewood, CO after 24 hours of demolition. The Demolition Permit was approved on March 12 by Lakewood so the city is fully aware of what is happening. However, the contractor has not installed any erosion control devices, silt fence, etc. as required by the Kimley-Horn specifications shown in the second image above. They began demolition on March 13 in violation of their own established Sequence Of Construction Activities as specified by Kimley-Horn engineers. We assume this is OK with the city manager and city council because the city would have approved everything at the REQUIRED MEETING before demolition begins as stated on page 11 of the Erosion and Sediment Control Report : Read the full Savebelmarpark email from the source
From a resident with a question. Thanks for sharing! According to the Jefferson County website: https://www.jeffco.us/4887/Federal-Impact-Updates “In 2023 the county [Jefferson] received about $105 million in federal revenue from approximately 130 different awards. The county relies on these federal dollars to provide a broad range of critical services such as food assistance, early childhood education, highway safety, crime victim assistance, employment services, child support, medical assistance, emergency management, and preventative health services. Additionally, in 2023 we administered about $110 million in direct federal assistance to our community. Once our 2024 audit is complete, we will have more recent numbers.” Question: Why are Jeffco County Commissioners risking the loss of $215 million dollars in essential federal funds to openly defy federal law by not cooperating with federal immigration law and an Executive Order to eliminate DEI offices? County answer: “We will continue to provide essential services and resources to our community and are in the process of identifying strategies to do that in the event that we lose funding.” In other words, RAISE OUR TAXES AGAIN. Voters in Jefferson County were not allowed to vote on implementing DEI in the County nor could we vote on defying federal immigration law for the County to protect illegal immigrants nor vote on defying the DEI Executive Order. These decisions are the sole responsibility of the County Commissioners and their handlers. Please share any answers you hear from the county as to whether they will comply with federal direction in order to receive federal...
16 March, 2025 Thanks to a reader who provided new information, this post requires a major rewrite. Please stop reading now and stay tuned! What will Lincoln Property Company (LPC) do with the toxic landfill on The Bend development at 4th and Union? No one knows. One part of the property has development plans, including the area SOUTH of 4th Ave. This area is supposedly free of contamination and can be developed by following safety rules. The area NORTH of 4th Ave is where no development can occur because it wasn’t fully remediated, only covered with dirt. There has been no plan filed for this land so the site plan is incomplete. The city needs the plan for the entire parcel of land to design adequate resources and to reassure residents the area is safe. But if anyone knows the full site plans, Lakewood Informer can’t find them. Lakewood Informer filed an open records request for the site plan. Instead of supplying the document, the city said to get it online. To be fair, knowing where to find the documents yourself is a valuable tool for any government website, which always seems convoluted. The Urban Renewal application materials were posted for the meeting back in January. However, there was no site plan included. (Thank you to the city staff who handle requests) Going to the eTRAKiT development site revealed no permits or projects for that parcel ID. There is obviously a site plan, pre-development application, development application, or whatever is...
From Save Open Space – Lakewood 2/24 Lakewood Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, backed by dark money, continue City’s long history of choosing development over environment Council’s action threw out the wishes of over 8,000 community members who signed the Save Open Space Lakewood Green Initiative petition 2/24 Lakewood Council approved a new land use scheme reinstating a loophole that allows developers to pay a fee in lieu of land donation On February 24, 2025, Lakewood City Council voted to repeal and replace the citizens’ initiated Save Open Space Lakewood (SOS Lakewood) Green Initiative with City Hall’s anti-environmental, no-transparency, developer-friendly ordinance. “The City’s vote reinstates the practice of back-door deals where fees are prioritized over parks and open spaces. It is also a slap in the face to petitioners whose pleas not only went unheard, but who also faced personal attacks by a well-orchestrated campaign against the initiative,” said Cathy Kentner, petition representative. At the heart of the initiative was eliminating the provision that allowed large developments to pay a fee-in-lieu of creating a one third acre or larger “pocket park.” By wrongfully withholding building permits from projects that had already paid a fee and by wrongfully requiring land dedication for smaller projects, City Hall was successful in fabricating a “crisis” that they “heroically” solved. They used the “unintended consequences” suffered by the smaller projects to put back in place all of the problems that led to the initiative – back-door deal making and a scheme where paying a fee is...
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